National residential listings increased in August: SQM's Louis Christopher

EXPERT OBSERVER

Figures released today by SQM Research reveal national residential property listings increased in August by 2.9%, to 325,693 from 316,391 in July 2019.

Compared to 12 months ago, listings were down by 2.1%.

All states experienced an increase in property sales listings over the month, with Melbourne experiencing the highest increase at 6.7% followed by Sydney with a 5.0% increase.

Perth recorded the lowest increase of 1.7% over the month.

Year-on-year Sydney’s listings declined by 15.3%.

Melbourne also declined but by a smaller margin of 1.9%.

Perth and Darwin’s year-on-year listings also saw declines of 4.6% and 3.6% respectively.

All other states recorded increases on their year-on-year listings.

Hobart’s increase was 10.8%, the highest increase in the nation, followed by Canberra with an increase of 10.0%.

August’s counts in part reflect the annual seasonal rise in listings that occur as we enter into the spring period.

It also may represent some return of confidence by vendors especially in the Melbourne and Sydney property markets.

Agents will be pleased to hear the new listings also rose during the month, however, older listings remained fairly stable.

Asking Prices

Capital City asking prices increased marginally by 1.0% for houses but decreased 1.0% for units, over the month to 3 September 2019. Unit asking prices are now $560,500 and houses $928,800.

Compared to a year ago, the capital city asking prices posted declines of 1.5% for houses and declines of 2.3% for units.

Over the month, Melbourne’s house and unit asking prices both increased by 0.1% and 0.4% respectively. Hobart also increased its house and unit prices by 0.5% and 4.2% respectively.

Sydney’s asking prices has increased by 1.7% for houses but declined 1.2% for units. Other states to post asking price increases was Brisbane with a 0.5% for houses but 0.4% decline for units; Perth recorded a 0.6% increase for houses but a 0.8% decline for units. Canberra also managed an increase of 1.6% for houses but a 0.3% decline for units, whilst Adelaide asking prices was stable for houses but declined 0.4% for units.

LOUIS CHRISTOPHER is the CEO of SQM Research.